Kabul, Afghanistan — The woman was angry. I am standing in a muddy lane on a mountain slope capital of afghanistan In poorer areas, she pulled her headscarf aside to reveal thick grey-white hair.
“You see these hairs? Even I have to fetch water with my gray hair,” said Marofa, a 52-year-old resident of Kabul’s Deh Mazang neighborhood who, like many Afghans, goes by a single name. “These containers are heavy. We have no strength left in our backs, no strength left in our legs.”
A mosque down the hill has its own well that provides free water, but it is not potable – yellow and salty – and has to be carried. Potable water is transported and sold in the neighborhood on three-wheel motorcycles. For many people, the price is too high.
“We have no money to eat. How will we get water?” said another local resident, 90-year-old Wali Mohammed, who did not hide his anger.
Both said that after a few months Taliban seized power In Afghanistan in 2021, new authorities cut pipes that some residents had laid to carry water from a community well to their homes.
“They cut off our water. They are powerful and they don’t even give us any reason,” Mohammed said.
But another resident, Najibullah Rahimi, 32, said the water level in the well dropped due to pipes leading to people’s homes, leaving people living higher up the hill with no water at all. “So the government came and cut the pipe.”
Kabul, situated in the high altitude valley of the Hindu Kush mountains, is rapidly depleting of water. Its population is mostly dependent on groundwater extracted from wells. But groundwater is depleting at an alarming rate and some wells have to be dug up to 150 meters (about 500 feet) deep to reach it.
An April 2025 report by the aid group Mercy Corps said the level of Kabul’s aquifers had fallen 25–30 meters (about 80–100 feet) over the past decade. Aquifers store large amounts of water beneath the land surface. Due to seepage of rain, water gradually accumulates in them over the years. Too much extraction from aquifers, or less water due to changes in climate, leads to depletion.
It added, “Without large-scale changes to Kabul’s water management dynamics, the city will face an unprecedented humanitarian disaster within the coming decade, and possibly much sooner.”
Climate changeThe burning of gasoline, oil, and coal has played a role. frequent drought Snowfall has reduced, the gradual melting of which can replenish groundwater. Instead, Kabul looks more sudden, heavy rainfall that causes floods But not enough of it reaches the aquifer.
Najibullah Sadid, a Germany-based water resources and environment expert with the Afghanistan Water and Environment Professionals Network, said the changing climate has exacerbated a long-running crisis.
“Even without climate change, Kabul would have seen this crisis with huge, unprecedented growth in population and urbanization,” Saadid said.
The city has more than doubled in size over the past two decades. After the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Kabul saw a large influx of Afghans returning from neighboring countries. Now another situation is being seen, because Pakistan and Iran started expelling Afghans In 2023. Kabul, which had a population of about 2.5 million in 2001, is now home to an estimated 6 million people.
In some parts, shallow aquifers have already dried up, Saadid said. And recent rains have had little impact because Kabul is now so developed that there is little raw, natural land left for water to penetrate.
“Even if it is raining every day, it will not have any impact on the groundwater level because there is no room for groundwater to be impacted,” Saadid said.
Mismanagement of water resources has exacerbated the problem, he said, including beverage companies and greenhouses using large amounts of groundwater.
Officials are well aware of this problem.
“The water situation in Kabul city is critical,” said Water and Energy Ministry spokesman Qari Matiullah Abid. “The main reason is that the population has increased significantly, rainfall has decreased and consumption has increased.”
He said that the government is taking action. It banned groundwater extraction by beverage companies, farmers and other commercial users. Water meters have been installed and quotas have been imposed on businesses such as car washes and large buildings, and those who exceed their limits have been asked to move out of Kabul.
Abid said that to help replenish groundwater, check dams – small, temporary structures over waterways – have been constructed in 14 districts of Kabul, and thousands of absorption wells that help manage storm water have been dug.
He also pointed to the completion of Kabul’s Shah wa Araus Dam, which was inaugurated in 2024 and is designed to hold 10 million cubic meters (353 million cubic feet) of water, and the removal of millions of tons of sediment from the Qargha Dam to increase the reservoir’s capacity.
But these are not enough.
Two major projects that could have significantly mitigated the crisis have been delayed.
One is a pipeline about 200 kilometers (124 mi) from the Panjshir River north of Kabul, and the other is a planned dam and reservoir known as Shah Toot Dam about 30 kilometers (18 mi) southwest of the city. Together, they can provide water to about 4 million people, Mercy Corps reports.
“The combination of the two will be a sustainable solution for the future,” Saadid said. Although construction of the dam would take several years, the pipeline could be completed relatively quickly, he said.
Shafiullah Zahid, director of the Kabul zone at Afghanistan’s Urban Water Supply and Sewage State Corporation, said the Panjshir pipeline’s budget of about $130 million has been approved. The original survey, completed under the previous government, “has been completely revised, and now needs another review,” he said. Once that’s complete, “the practical work can begin.”
The Shah Toot Dam, which was announced months before the Taliban takeover, was a joint Afghan-Indian project. There has been a delay in funding in this also. Zahid said, if construction starts, it will take six to seven years to complete.
But Saadid said both Afghanistan’s current and previous governments have prioritized other infrastructure over critical water projects.
“A lot of roads are being built, flyovers are being built with a lot of money. But there is no priority for water projects,” he said. “They are only doing projects that are attention-grabbers, not projects that are fundamental to people’s health and people’s fundamental rights. Water is essential. Water is more important than roads.”
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Abdul Qahar Afghan in Kabul contributed
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